February 17, 2008 Analysis

On Sunday, February 17, I woke up inspired and motivated to work. I'm working on research for another class and woke up anxious to do work so I wanted to listen to music that would match, if not elevate, that mood! So after doing a few things around the house, I opened up Pandora around 1:12pm and started a new search for Kirk Franklin. Over the next 2.5 hours I listened to 33 songs. Of the first 4 songs recommended, only 1 was to my liking. After that though, Pandora, hit it's stride. 14 of the next 15 songs were awesome! In fact 11 of those 15 songs were brand new to my ears and the one that I didn't want to listen to, was one that I had heard before. The next 14 songs were pretty much hit or miss....7 I enjoyed and 7, not so much! I'm not sure how Pandora hit it's stride or what features caused it to degrade somewhat but for a period of time, Pandora and I were in it to win it! lol I wish there was a way to identify what about that period of time worked so well or what attributes aligned with my mood/taste and tags from the recommendations but something obviously went awry!! Stay tuned, we'll keep the analysis going and maybe I can find the answer to my own question of the remainder of the semester!

February 9, 2008 Analysis

So I started my session this morning around 10:58am (trying to mix it up a little lol). I decided that I wanted something not necessarily mellow but maybe more inspirational and free flowing if that makes sense. So I created a Lauryn Hill playlist. Huge mistake!! :-( Of the seven songs that were presented, I only kept "1" of the recommendations :-( Growing tired of giving poor feedback, I decided maybe Lauryn Hill wasnt the best search keyword or either Lauryn Hill didn't accurately depict my mood. So after an embarrasing 8 minutes, I decided to create a new playlist, Kanye West. From 11:06 to 12:10, I was presented 18 songs, 12 of which I listened to in their entirety. Perhaps my expectations for Pandora swelled from their accuracy a couple of days ago, but I was rather disappointed with my overall listening session for the day. The more I think about it, perhaps I really did want to listen to Lauryn Hill and became frustrated when the recommendations couldn't figure that out!! The nerve of me!! lol

February 7, 2008 - Analysis Part 2

So after class I decided to do a little more work and again listen to Pandora. I started out at 10:27 in an upbeat mood and decided to restart my Mary J. Blige playlist. 16 of the 30 songs I listened to from 10:27 to 11:52 where songs I enjoyed. After switching from my "ready-to-work" upbeat mood to a more relaxed mood, I changed to my John Legend playlist from 11:52 to 1:36 am (if you haven't inferred by now, I'm somewhat of a night owl! lol) Amazingly, 22 of the 25 songs I listened to were songs I enjoyed!! Impressive!!! And 4 of the 5 songs that I had never listened to before this evening I loved as well!! By far, one of the best listening sessions I've encountered so far on Pandora!! Perhaps my mood wasn't nearly as critical as it's been in the past, or perhaps the recommendation algorithm performed exceptionally well that evening...i'm not sure of the underlying explanation but I thoroughly enjoyed the playlist!!

February 6, 2008 Results

While finishing up some other work, I decided to listen to Pandora. I started this session at 1:38am and finished up around 2:57am. I noted my mood as "tired" and was in fact looking for music that was slow, motivational/inspirational as well as mellow. I started a new playlist by conducting a search for John Legend. After listening to a total of 25 songs, I still didn't hear the John Legend song that I was anticipating. I guess I was in a "hard-to-please" mood because of the 25 songs I listened to only 12 matched my mood and one that I liked but only wanted to hear a snippet of it so I attempted to skip mid-way, a drastic difference from my previous listening experience. There were songs I like but didn't want to hear, songs I used to like but I've heard them so much they were no longer appealing and much to dismay, there was a song that I didn't want to hear, designated it as such by providing a thumbs down and it was recommended again about 10 songs later. Granted, the first version was a live-version and the 2nd was the album version, I still wasn't happy about seeing it in the playlist again after it already appeared. There were however three songs that I had never heard before that matched my mood well. I was anticipating songs similar to So High or Refuge by John Legend and neither appeared so perhaps being disappointed by their abscence, I became all the more critical. I find it rather interesting that mood dictates so much regarding listening pleasure!

January 16, 2008 Analysis

My analysis with Pandora starts on 1-16-2008 from 11:00pm to 12:30. My initial mood was very relaxed and I started my playlist search by entering Mary J. Blige. In the following 90 minutes I listened to 20 songs. 15 of those received a thumbs-up as the met my mood and were songs that I enjoyed hearing in their entirety, achieving a 75% accuracy rating. I have started an Excel spreadsheets to better analyze the recommendations along with other factors such as my whether I used to like the song or I like the song but I just wasn't in the mood to hear it along with other factors.